Problem Solved

Owl Box Repaired - Photo by: Maggie Rufo

Last year I noticed that Salt seemed to be getting his talons stuck between the two walls of the entryway. I reported that to H.O.P. and they came up with a temporary fix. A plastic piece that covered this area, it seemed to work fine. Salt and Pepper successfully raised a nice size clutch of five.

This year Salt and Pepper haven't started a clutch as yet, although Salt has been in the box twice that I have seen. He was definitely having a heck of a time getting both in and out of the box. I wasn't sure about why this was - so I made a short video of it and sent it to Anne (WildCare). They have always been so good about any problems or questions about the owl box and this was no exception. They discussed the problem, looked over the video, and decided the problem was the plastic piece. The owls couldn't get a grip on it to go in or out. (my guess is after a year it probably hardened up or got brittle). So Maggie and Don went to Nicasio and fixed it! Don removed the plastic piece and filled in any gaps with a quick drying wood putty so the owls wouldn't get those talons caught again. Thank you Don, Maggie and Anne for the quick response....now we wait for Salt and Pepper to start, and they have a safe place again to raise a new clutch...

Wednesday and Thursday night we did not have any live feed, so looking forward to tonight.